


Every Rose Has Its Thorn

by wonderclam



Series: TDTM [2]
Category: EXO (Band), K-pop
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-20
Updated: 2016-03-24
Packaged: 2018-05-07 20:53:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5470454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wonderclam/pseuds/wonderclam
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After spending their last summer together before college, Kai and Sehun agree that it would be best to end what they have going on between them in order to experience college life to the fullest.  When Kai brings a “new friend” home with him for Christmas break, however, Sehun quickly decides that that may have been a big mistake.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

When Sehun had suggested the day before he and Kai were both supposed to leave for college that they stay open to seeing other people while they were away from each other at school, Kai had been disappointed to say the least. While it was true that they had never talked about being exclusive to one another, Kai had begun to think a couple months in that maybe they were moving beyond friends who fucked around sometimes. But instead of taking a chance and telling Sehun how he felt, he had smiled and agreed with him, saying that it wouldn’t be fair to either of them to start off their time apart with strings attached. _Who knows, maybe I’ll get there and immediately find my soul mate. I wouldn’t want to have to turn them down because of you,_ he had joked, so busy trying to hide his own hurt feelings that he hadn’t noticed Sehun’s unusual lack of response.

Needless to say, Kai’s first few weeks of college weren’t as happy and carefree as they were supposed to be, as happy and carefree as Sehun apparently wanted them to be. He spent a lot of time alone in his room (his roommate wasn’t around often, even to sleep. He was kind of a weird kid, and Kai figured he was better off not knowing where he was all the time) or at the library. Any time he was invited to any type of social event he declined, claiming he needed to study. He was lucky if he managed to make it to the dining hall at least once a day to eat something other than instant noodles. And talking to Sehun felt awkward and strained, so he didn’t even have the comfort of sharing any of his experiences with his best friend.

When he realized that he had already been there for nearly three weeks and hadn’t made a single new friend, he snapped himself out of his funk. These were supposed to be the best years of his life according to every piece of media he had ever seen, and he was spending his time sitting around moping. It’s not like he had a broken heart or anything. Not like he and Sehun had spent at least one night a week together for close to three months. But whatever. That was in the past, and if Sehun wanted to move on, then so would he. So Kai decided that the next time someone asked him to do something, no matter what it was, he was going to say yes.

The opportunity presented itself just a few days later when a classmate, Taemin, stopped him after dance practice (they were already getting ready for a minor performance and Saturday afternoon practices were a must) and invited him to his fraternity’s party that night. Kai accepted without hesitation and found himself standing in front of a large house later that evening. He had gotten there a bit earlier than Taemin had suggested, hoping to secure a spot on a couch or a small stretch of wall to occupy for the majority of the night (newfound resolution to be more sociable or not, parties still weren’t really is thing). Before he had a chance to ring the doorbell, Taemin had thrown the door open and pulled him inside.

Kai was surprised (and relieved) that Taemin stayed near him practically the whole night. Kai had expected him to disappear with one of the dozens of people who called for his attention, but he always brought Kai along with him and introduced him to all of his friends. They spent most of the night chatting and discovering that they had a lot in common.

After that night, Kai spent a lot of time with Taemin. They were both dance majors, and even though Taemin was a sophomore, they had a lot of classes in the same buildings and were around each other most of the day. They quickly grew to become good friends, Taemin acting as his personal guide around the campus and surrounding town, and Kai felt himself opening up and feeling more comfortable engaging with everyone around him. With everything starting to look up for him, Kai even felt that he was able to start talking to Sehun again like nothing had ever happened.

\---

Before he knew it, Kai was finishing his finals and packing for his trip back home for Christmas break. He had found out that Taemin only lived an hour away from him, and they were planning to travel together. Kai had even volunteered to have his mom drop Taemin off at the hotel he would be staying at until his parents could pick him up when they got back from their vacation the following day.

They were standing outside at the airport, waiting for Kai’s mom to pull up so they could load their stuff into the car, when Taemin said, “Are you sure it’s alright? I can seriously just take a bus like I was going to,” for what had to be the hundredth time over the last several days. “I don’t want your mom to have to go out of her way.”

Kai rolled his eyes. “Tae, it’s fine, really. She said it was no big deal. I swear, if you say that one more time I’m gonna push you out of the car a mile down the road and make you walk.”

“Ok, ok, I get it,” Taemin finally relented. They stood in silence for a few seconds before Taemin grabbed Kai’s arm and pulled it around his shoulder, earning a questioning glance from the other. “It’s cold,” he offered as an explanation.

“Well maybe you should have worn something more weather appropriate than a hoodie,” Kai scolded him, wrapping his arm tighter around the older boy nonetheless. “It’s December, and you’ve lived here your whole life, you should know what the weather is going to be like.”

“But this hoodie is brand new and looks amazing on me. I had to show it off!” Taemin whined. Kai chuckled and ruffled his hair, pulling his arm back to grab his bags when his mom’s car came into view.

“Hello, boys!” she exclaimed, jumping out of the car and running around it to smother Kai in hugs and kisses. “Oh, honey, I’ve missed you so much!”

“Oh my god, mom, let me breathe!” Kai yelped, trying to wiggle out of her iron grip. She let go and turned to the other boy.

“And you must be Taemin. It’s nice to finally meet you,” she said, giving him an equally bone-crushing hug. “Kai has told me so much about you and how you’ve helped him learn his way around the school. Thank you so much for being such a good friend.”

“It’s nice to meet you, too, Ms. Kim. And it’s been my pleasure, really. Kai has become a very good friend of mine,” he said as Ms. Kim let go and smiled brightly at him.

“Oh, but what are you wearing, dear? You must be freezing!” she said, concerned mom face appearing when she took a good look at him. “Everyone in the car, quickly, come on. We don’t need anyone ending up with frostbite.” She pushed Taemin towards the front passenger door, grabbing his luggage to stow it in the trunk.

“I have to sit in the back by myself?” Kai asked incredulously as he grabbed the rest of his own bags and headed to the back of the car after his mother.

“He needs to be closer to the heater. You have that big, warm coat on, and he’s practically naked. Now come on, it’s late and I’m sure you’re both ready to rest,” she said, slamming the trunk closed when everything was loaded inside. Kai grumbled under his breath, but did as his mother said, seeing as she was right.

The ride to the hotel didn’t take long, and Taemin and Ms. Kim passed the time trading embarrassing stories about Kai while the boy himself sat quietly and pretended not to hear them. Kai found it kind of amazing how easily the two of them got along. They were chatting away like life-long friends who were catching up after not seeing each other for months. It made Kai smile.

“This looks like the place,” Ms. Kim announced just a few minutes later as she pulled up in front of the doors of the hotel. “Kai, help Taemin take his things in. I’ll wait here for you.” Kai reluctantly opened the door to the cold air once again and helped his friend carry all of his belongings into the empty lobby.

“Ok, your mom is seriously one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met, Taemin gushed as they waited for the front desk clerk to appear. “Now I know where you get it from,” he added with a wink.

Even though he knew Taemin was messing with him on purpose, he couldn’t help the blush that creeped up his face at the compliment. Luckily he was saved from further embarrassment by the door behind the counter opening and a lady in a hotel uniform coming out to greet them. Taemin gave her his name and she typed it into her computer, frowning at whatever her result was.

“Sir, I’m very sorry, but it looks like we mistakenly overbooked our rooms for the night and had to cancel your reservation,” she explained, visibly bracing herself for the backlash.

“What?” Taemin asked blankly. “What do you mean you overbooked? It’s ten o’clock at night, where the hell am I supposed to go?” he demanded.

“Sir, I sincerely apologize. This really doesn’t happen often.”

“I don’t care if it happens often or not, it’s happening now!”

Sensing that things were going to go very bad very fast, Kai stepped in and tried to diffuse the situation.

“Hey, dude, calm down,” he said, trying to placate his irate friend.

“Calm down? What the hell is the point of reserving a room if they’re just going to tell me I can’t stay here anyway?” Taemin all but yelled.

“I know, it’s stupid. But there’s no use yelling at her,” he said, nodding towards the uncomfortable looking woman, “she didn’t do it, it’s not her fault. Look, why don’t we just… let’s just go back to the car. You can stay at my house for the night,” Kai said, hoping his mother wouldn’t be too upset at having an unexpected guest staying with them. He picked up one of Taemin’s bags and headed for the door.

“I really am sorry,” the desk clerk said again as the boys walked away.

“Yeah, whatever, thanks for nothing,” Taemin said over his shoulder before walking out the door. Kai smacked him on the arm for being unnecessarily rude.

When they got back to the car, Kai could see his mother frowning in confusion.

“What’s wrong?” she asked when they both climbed into the back seat of the car.

“Apparently calling a week ahead of time and making a reservation means nothing and they gave his room away. It’s alright if he stays with us, right?” Kai asked.

“Oh, sweetie, of course you can stay with us!” she agreed. “Kai, I don’t know why you didn’t just invite him in the first place. It would have saved us all time and money.”

“Yeah, Kai, why didn’t you just invite me in the first place?” Taemin teased him, seemingly already over it. Kai just crossed his arms and looked out the window, ignoring Taemin’s laugh as they started back toward the road.

When they pulled into their driveway, Kai was surprised to see the only light in the house coming from his bedroom window.

“Why is my light on?” he asked as they got out and gathered their things to take inside.

“Oh, I don’t know, I guess you’ll just have to go check it out,” his mom said with a smile that clearly said she knew what was up and wasn’t going to tell him. “Well, I worked all day and I’m tired, so I’m going to go to bed. You boys get settled in and get some rest, too. Tomorrow I want to hear all about what you’ve been doing this semester,” she said, and with another round of hugs and kisses for both boys, she left them alone in the living room and disappeared into her bedroom.

“Alright, give me a tour so I don’t end up in your sex torture dungeon if I get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom,” Taemin said, looping his arm around Kai’s elbow and nudging him to lead the way. Knowing better than to humor him with a response, Kai kept his mouth shut and led him through the house, telling him what each room was and ending at his bedroom. When he opened the door he was almost knocked off his feet. Arms were thrown around his neck and lips planted themselves firmly over his own in a quick kiss before the owner leaned back just enough to stare at his face.

“Hi, Kai!” Sehun said excitedly.

“Holy shit, Sehun, what the hell?” Kai said in shock, his own hands landing on Sehun’s hips to help balance himself.

“Aren’t you happy to see me?” Sehun asked cheekily, not loosening his grip until a small cough from his right made him turn his head. When he noticed another person standing there, he put a good foot of distance between himself and Kai. “Shit, sorry, I didn’t know you had someone with you.”

“Huh? Oh, yeah,” Kai said dumbly as he turned to look at Taemin, who he had temporarily forgotten was standing next to him. “Taemin, this is Sehun, my best friend since kindergarten. Sehun, Taemin, first friend in made at school this year,” he introduced the two. They shook hands and made small talk for a few moments as they finally made their way into Kai’s room, remaining intensely polite to each other after that awkward first encounter.

“So, Sehun, what are you doing here?” Kai asked when silence overtook them.

“Well, I was gonna surprise you with a movie night, but I guess we can do it another time. I didn’t realize you were going to have company,” Sehun said, looking dejected at the thought of having to delay plans with his best friend after waiting months to see him.

“A movie night sounds like fun!” Taemin suddenly spoke up. “We should definitely have a movie night. I don’t want you guys to have to cancel anything because of me.”

“Oh, um, ok,” Sehun said, not sure how he felt about sharing Kai for the night. He had wanted this to be a night for them to hang out and fill each other in on what they had been doing since they last saw each other. Maybe find out if Kai had found his “soul mate” yet… Just then Taemin’s phone started ringing and he pulled it out of his pocket.

“It’s my mom, I’ll be right back,” he said, stepping out into the hall and closing the door most of the way behind him.

“Kai, I’m so sorry, I didn’t know you weren’t going to be alone,” Sehun said.

“It’s alright, don’t worry about it,” Kai said, amused at Sehun looking so embarrassed (it didn’t happen often). They sat in silence for a few seconds before he went on. “So… that was quite the greeting. Not really something I expected since, you know, we’re supposed to be seeing other people.” If Kai didn’t know any better, he would say that Sehun looked ashamed, but before either of them could say anything else, Taemin reentered the room.

“So, I have some bad news,” he said, a frown on his face and not seeming to notice the uncomfortable atmosphere in the room.

“What is it?” Kai asked, concerned.

“Well, my parents were supposed to get back tomorrow so they could take me home, but their flight has been delayed until further notice because of bad weather. Is it cool if I stay here for another day or two?” he asked hopefully.

“Sure, no problem,” Kai said with a smile, glad that that was the extent of the problem.

“Thank you so much, Kai, you’re the best!” he said, hugging Kai tightly to show his gratitude, neither of them noticing the look of distaste that flashed across Sehun’s face. “So, about this movie night,” Taemin said, changing the topic. “Is this happening in here? Because, no offense, this room is a little small for three people,” he said, looking around the room uncertainly.

“No, we can go to the living room. There’s a bigger TV in there. Sehun, can you get the extra blankets from the closet?” Kai asked, leading them all out of his room.

“Sure,” Sehun said and quickly ducked away from them in the direction of the hall closet. Kai and Taemin made their way to the kitchen to gather some snacks and drinks and then met Sehun in the living room. Sehun was already setting up a movie he had brought with him that neither he nor Kai had seen before, but both had talked about wanting to watch.

Once the blankets were laid out and everyone was settled into a comfortable position (Sehun made sure Kai was in the middle so Taemin couldn’t have _all_ of his attention), Sehun pushed the button on the remote to start the movie. They chatted and munched on their popcorn for a while, growing quieter as the movie picked up momentum. Kai started when he felt Taemin curl into him and hide his face against his shoulder, claiming that he didn’t like scary movies (Sehun wouldn’t classify it as a scary movie, and thought Taemin was overreacting). By the end of the movie, Taemin had fallen asleep on Kai’s shoulder, and Sehun took the opportunity to talk with his best friend for a while.

“So, you guys seem pretty close,” he said, trying his best to sound nonchalant.

“Yeah, I guess we are,” Kai said, looking down at the sleeping boy fondly. “He helped me out a lot at the beginning of the semester. You know, fastest way to get to class, best place for coffee, what professors to watch out for. And he introduced me to a lot of people so I wouldn’t end up a recluse, which was becoming a very real possibility there at the beginning.” Kai looked up at Sehun then, surprised at the gloomy expression on his face. “Hey, don’t look so sad. You haven’t been replaced. You’re always going to be my best friend,” he said in what he assumed was a comforting manner.

“Yeah, always,” Sehun said, forcing a smile onto his face. “Goodnight, Kai.” He leaned in to place a quick peck on Kai’s cheek, then rolled over to face the wall and pulled his blanket up to his chin, refusing to let him see the tears welling up in his eyes.


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning all three boys were woken up by several loud thuds coming from the second floor. Panicking slightly, Kai threw the blanket off of himself and rushed up the stairs to see what was going on. At the top of the stairs he was met with stacks of cardboard boxes and the ladder leading to the attic blocking his path. He discovered the source of the noise when a box dropped through the hole in the ceiling and knocked a few others over.

“Mom?” he called out, ignoring the tiny part of his brain telling him someone had broken into their house specifically to steal their Christmas decorations.

“Up here!” he heard from above. (He most certainly did not breathe a small sigh of relief at hearing her voice, because burglars in the attic were never an option. Obviously.) Carefully maneuvering around the precarious stacks, he made his way to the ladder and up into the attic.

“Good morning, sleepy head,” his mom greeted him with a smile as his head popped into view.

“Yeah, morning,” he mumbled sleepily, stopping half way up the ladder instead of going all the way into the freezing cold attic.

“Well, barely; it’s almost noon. I thought you boys were going to sleep the whole day away.”

“So you decided to wake us up by making it sound like the house was falling on us?”

“Oh, I wasn’t being that loud, Mr. Dramatic,” she teased. Kai rolled his eyes and wrapped his arms around himself to try and keep warm.

“So I take it we’re decorating today?” he asked, watching as she picked up another box with “X-mas” written on the side in black marker.

“Yes, sir,” she answered, handing it over to him so he could take it the rest of the way down. “I know it’s a little late, but it just didn’t feel right without you and Sehun here to help, so I figured I’d wait until you were both home.” She picked up one more box and followed Kai down the steps into the crowded second floor hallway, folding up the ladder and closing the door to the attic once they were down.

Kai was secretly pleased that she had waited. It had become something of a tradition that he and Sehun would do most of the decorating while she supervised and gave them suggestions on where to place each piece for the best effect. Not getting to do so would have dampened his holiday spirit, but saying that out loud would have made him feel immature. Sehun, on the other hand, seemed to have no qualms displaying how excited he was as his face lit up like the Christmas tree would later that evening when he came up the stairs.

“Yes, today is going to be awesome!” he exclaimed, taking the box Ms. Kim gave to him as she passed him to answer the phone ringing in her bedroom downstairs. “And we’re doing it my way this year,” he said suddenly, turning to look pointedly at Kai, who just scoffed at him.

“We’ll do it whatever way looks best.”

“My way _will_ look the best.”

“Sehun, nobody wants to see Santa and his reindeer reenacting _Armageddon_ on the roof.”

“I know at least eighteen people who would disagree with that statement,” Sehun argued.

“The high school drama club doesn’t count.”

“Why not? They’re people, too!”

“Oh my god, you two bicker like an old married couple,” Taemin interrupted after watching them go back and forth like a tennis match. Both of them looked over at him as if just realizing he was there, but while Kai looked sheepish at having forgotten about him, Sehun just scowled.

“Hey, Taemin’s helping us this time, so he gets a say in what we’re doing, too,” Kai said with a hopeful look on his face. Surely Taemin would side with him and the neighbors would be spared from Sehun’s “creativity” for one more year. Before Taemin could respond, however, Sehun had scowled harder and started down the stairs, box of lights still in hand.

“What’s his problem?” Taemin asked, frowning as he watched Sehun walk away.

“I don’t know, maybe he didn’t sleep well? He’s not usually like that,” Kai said with a shrug and started sorting through the boxes around him, asking Taemin to help figure out which ones they needed to take outside.

 

Sehun silently seethed as he made his way down the stairs. Through all the confusion of the morning he had almost forgotten that he spent at least twenty minutes the night before feeling sorry for himself before he decided that he didn’t like Taemin. He decided that, rather than getting to know him and being ~~devastated~~ excited that Kai had found someone to make him happy, he was going to take out his frustration on the poor guy. Was it childish of him to do so? Without a doubt. Did he care? Not even a little bit. If he was going to be miserable, then everyone around him would be, too.

“Bad news, boys,” Ms. Kim yelled from her room.

“What’s wrong?” Kai asked, following Sehun down the stairs.

“I have to go in to work today,” she answered as she came into the living room, no longer dressed in the jeans and festive holiday sweater she had been wearing previously.

“What? But decorating takes three people,” Sehun whined.

“Well, you’ll have Taemin here instead of me. I’m sure he’ll do a great job,” she said, smiling at the boy while Sehun shot him a dirty look.

“We could just wait for you to get home,” he persisted. “You said you waited for us to get here, so it wouldn’t be fair if we didn’t do the same.”

“Don’t be stupid, Sehun, we’ll just do the outside lights on our own like normal and then we’ll do the inside when she gets home,” Kai said, noting with annoyance the way Sehun seemed to be trying to exclude Taemin.

“That’s the spirit!” Ms. Kim cheered, missing the tension between the boys as she slipped on her coat and grabbed her purse from beside the front door. “And I’ll even pick up something for dinner on my way home, how does that sound?”

“Yeah, ok, whatever. I’m gonna go take a shower,” Sehun said dejectedly, finally putting his box down before going back up the stairs and closing the bathroom door harder than necessary behind him.

“Well, someone got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning,” Ms. Kim said, looking up the stairs in surprise at the sound of the door slamming. “Anyway, I’ll be back in a few hours. Please be careful today. I love you, see you later.” With that she was out the door, leaving Kai and Taemin alone.

“I know he’s your best friend and all, but Sehun doesn’t seem very nice,” Taemin commented, dropping the boxes he had brought down with him next to the one Sehun had left behind.

“I’m sorry about him. I honestly don’t know why he’s acting like that. Normally he gets along with everyone,” Kai said, a little embarrassed at the way Sehun was acting. He really wanted his two best friends to get along, but Sehun wasn’t making it very easy.

 

Half an hour later they were all dressed in the warmest clothes they could find (Sehun borrowing Kai’s as he was too ~~stubborn to leave Kai alone with Taemin~~ lazy to go home and get his own) and ready to get started. Kai lost several rounds of rock, paper, scissors, and was the unlucky one tasked with clearing the snow off the roof. He dragged the ladder out of the garage and had Sehun hold it steady while he climbed up with a broom.

“If you let go and I fall I’m going to kill you,” Kai threatened only half seriously as he started up the ladder.

“I’m not going to let you fall, don’t worry. I won’t even look away from you,” Sehun said, grabbing the ladder with both hands and watching Kai until he made it to the top.

Once the roof was cleared of snow, Kai asked for someone to start bringing lights up to him. Since Taemin already had an untangled strand in hand, he volunteered to bring them up. He went up a few rungs on the ladder to wait for a steadying hand from Sehun… who “accidentally” tripped over thin air and slammed into the ladder, nearly knocking Taemin to the ground.

“Sehun, be careful!” Kai yelled from where he had watched it happen. Seriously, what was his problem today?

“Sorry! Are you ok?” Sehun said, holding the ladder tightly both to regain his balance and make sure it didn’t actually tip over. He was doing a pretty good job of sounding concerned if he did say so himself.

“Yeah, I’m good,” Taemin said, clinging to the ladder for dear life. He may have only been four feet in the air, but the frozen ground didn’t look like a very nice place to land should he fall.

“Sehun, why don’t you bring the lights up, and Taemin can hold the ladder,” Kai said. While it sounded like a suggestion, Sehun could tell by the look on his face that it was anything but. Ok, so maybe he wasn’t as convincing as he thought. Knowing when to stop pushing, Sehun agreed and stepped away from the ladder so Taemin could come back down.

They spent the next hour or so working in relative harmony. Sehun played as nicely with Taemin as he could allow himself to. It wasn’t his fault he had to disagree with everything Taemin said (and Taemin was truly trying to be helpful, while Sehun was suggesting every dumb thing that came to mind just to see if Kai would relent), but if Kai wasn’t going to let him do things the way he wanted, there was no way in hell he was going to follow what Taemin said. They eventually decided to go with Kai’s suggestion of a traditional light display because that resulted in the least arguments.

They strung lights along the trim of the house, around the windows, and around a few trees in the yard. Santa and his reindeer were perched safely atop the roof in their normal fashion. A large, light-up, inflatable snowman was the centerpiece of the front yard, flanked by a real snowman on each side that the boys put great detail into sculpting.

When the snowmen were complete, they boys stood back to admire their work. It looked really nice, Sehun admitted. Of course, something exploding would always look cooler, but this was almost as good. He was about to drop the extra snow in his hand that Kai wouldn’t let him use to make an inappropriate appendage on his snowman when a great idea came to him.

He slowly started to pack the snow together, not wanting to draw attention to what he was doing. While Kai and Taemin continued to congratulate themselves on a job well done, Sehun took a few steps back. When he was sure he was far enough behind them that they couldn’t see him, he cocked his arm back and launched the snowball at Kai’s back.

Kai stopped talking mid-sentence and slowly turned around, his eyes bright with anticipation as he realized what had happened. “Oh, it is _on_ ,” he said, scooping up some snow of his own and forming a ball. Sehun laughed as he tried to dodge the snowball thrown at him. After that it was an all-out war.

They spent the next twenty minutes whipping snowballs at each other as hard as they could. Sehun even managed to forget that he couldn’t stand being around Taemin and enjoyed himself. When Taemin snuck up behind Kai and shoved a handful of snow down the back of his shirt, however, Sehun stopped having fun.

While Kai was occupied with trying to get the snow out of his shirt, and Taemin was busy cackling at him, Sehun was plotting his revenge. Taemin wasn’t allowed to have his hands inside Kai’s shirt for any reason. That privilege belonged to Sehun alone. Sehun picked up as much snow as he could and packed it into the tightest ball he could manage, then took aim and threw it directly into Taemin’s face.


	3. Chapter 3

A string of colorful curses replaced Taemin’s laughter as his hands flew up to his face. “Ah, shit! Am I bleeding?” he asked, pulling his hands away to look at them and seeing bright red seeping into his white gloves. “Yes, I’m bleeding, fuck, _ow_!”

“Oh my god, I’m sorry!” Sehun said, trying not to sound too happy as he rushed over to check the damage. Maybe he had managed to break his nose? He could only hope.

“Are you ok? What happened?” Kai asked, not having witnessed the attack as he had still been busy trying to get the snow out of his shirt.

“He fucking hit me in the face with a snowball,” Taemin yelled, words muffled by the thick gloves covering the bottom of his face again in an attempt to stop the blood from trickling down his chin and staining his jacket, too.

“Sehun, why would you do that?” Kai demanded, turning to glare at him. Ok, so maybe this one was a little too far. Kai looked seriously pissed and Sehun actually felt a little bad for upsetting him. That was never his intention.

“I’m really sorry, Taemin. I didn’t realize I threw it so hard,” Sehun said sincerely, hoping only that it would gain him Kai’s forgiveness.

“Whatever,” Taemin mumbled and rolled his eyes as he turned to walk toward the house. Kai followed him with one last look of disappointment directed at Sehun.

Sehun sighed and trudged along behind them. It looked like he would have to take the less violent route to keep Kai from getting mad at him.

\---

“ _Boys? Where are you? I have food!_ ” Ms. Kim called out from the kitchen when she got home not too long after they went inside.

“In the bathroom!” Kai yelled back to her. Taemin was sitting on the toilet lid with his head tipped forward, pinching his nose to stop any more bleeding, while Kai knelt in front of him and helped clean the blood off his face. Sehun hovered in the doorway, watching with a sour expression while Kai tended to Taemin.

“What happened?” Ms. Kim gasped when she found them. She slid passed Sehun and pushed Kai out of the way to stand in front of Taemin.

“We were having a snowball fight and I accidentally threw one too hard,” Sehun spoke up before anyone else while Ms. Kim bent over and tipped the injured boy’s head up just enough to take a look at his face. She gave Sehun a stern “mom” look over her shoulder and went back to her examination.

“It doesn’t look broken. Does it hurt?” she asked.

“Not a lot.” He winced ever so slightly as he un-pinched it. It seemed to have finally stopped bleeding. Kai handed him the wet washcloth in his hand to finish cleaning himself up.

“Just be careful for the rest of the night, you don’t want it to start bleeding again,” she straightened back up and moved out of Taemin’s way so he could stand up to use the sink. “Alright, dinner is in the kitchen when you’re ready. Come on, you two. I think he can manage the rest on his own,” she said as she left the bathroom. Sehun grabbed Kai’s wrist and followed her, leaving Taemin to finish up.

“Dude, that was not even cool,” Kai hissed at Sehun as they walked side by side down the hall.

“What? It was an accident!” Sehun tried defending himself.

“You’ve been nothing but rude to him all day, don’t even give me that shit,” Kai snapped.

“Wow, I didn’t realize not being in love with the guy meant everything I did or said was rude, sorry,” Sehun said, affronted. Kai sighed.

“Just, can you try to get along with him? Please? I don’t know what your problem is with him because he hasn’t done anything wrong, but can you get over it?” Kai pleaded as they sat down at the table.

Sehun relented somewhat at the look on Kai’s face. _Technically_ Taemin really hadn’t done anything wrong. It wasn’t wrong for him to be with Kai when Sehun himself was the one to suggest seeing other people in the first place. But actually seeing it happening in front of his face made him realize that he had made probably the biggest mistake of his short life. So while irritating Kai’s new boyfriend was a great way to vent his frustration about the situation, he would have to be much more subtle if he didn’t want Kai to get seriously mad at him.

“Fine, I’ll do my best, but I can’t make any promises,” he finally said.

“Thank you.”

Taemin came into the kitchen then and Kai tugged his wrist free from where Sehun was still holding on to it, pulling the chair next to him out for the other boy. Sehun could already feel his patience being tested as Taemin smiled at Kai and thanked him as he sat down. But before he could get too agitated, Ms. Kim was setting a large square box in the middle of the table and handing them each a paper plate.

“Ooh, did you get the right kind?” Sehun asked excitedly as she opened the lid of the box, instantly ignoring Taemin in favor of pizza.

“Half pepperoni and black olive, half pineapple, ham, and onion. I don’t think I’ve ordered anything different in the last ten years,” she announced. “I didn’t know what you liked, Taemin, so I hope one of those is ok for you,” she added as she took her own seat.

Sehun hoped Taemin didn’t like pepperoni and black olive. Sharing with his rival was not on his list of things to do today. Or ever. Seriously, if he took one slice of-

“Are you kidding? Pineapple, ham, and onion is my absolute favorite!” Taemin said happily and grabbed a slice of Kai’s half.

“Seriously?” Kai asked, eyebrows raised in surprise. Taemin smiled around his mouthful of food and nodded. “You have excellent taste,” he said, smiling back at him.

-never mind. Watching the two of them bond over their shared favorite pizza toppings was going to make him sick. He needed to do something to stop the grotesque display quickly.

“Kai, let me try yours,” he said, leaning closer to him with his mouth open, waiting for Kai to let him have a bite. Kai gave him a weird look.

“Sehun, you hate this. The first time you tried it you spit it in my face,” he said, not moving. “If you want to try it, get your own.”

“But I might not like it, and I don’t want to waste a whole slice.”

“Then don’t bother trying it?” Kai suggested.

“But I _might_ like it now. I’ve changed since the last time I had it. Grown as a person. Matured.”

Kai rolled his eyes, but held his own pizza out anyway and mumbled, “You don’t seem very mature at the moment,” only loud enough for Sehun to hear. Sehun pouted at him, but took a bite and started to chew.

“Ugh,” he said with a grimace, reaching for a napkin and spitting it out right away. “I don’t know how you can eat that. Pizza is not supposed to have sweet things on it.” He stood up and grabbed a glass from the cupboard, filled it with water, and drank the whole thing before returning to the table.

“Told you,” Kai teased when he sat back down. Sehun stuck his tongue out at him.

“Oh, you two haven’t changed since you were kids,” Ms. Kim said, laughing at their childish behavior.

Kai blushed and looked down at his food, his mind suddenly supplying him with images of how exactly they _had_ changed since they were kids. (Not that she knew that. It wasn’t that he hadn’t wanted to tell her, it had just take him a while to get used to it himself, then he never found the right time to bring it up, and then it was over and there was no point in mentioning it.) He quickly shoved those thoughts to the back of his mind and locked them away. Now was not the time to start thinking about Sehun like that again, especially when he had gotten so good at ignoring his feelings over the past few months. And _especially_ especially when Sehun was being such a jerk.

“Do you remember when you were little and you used to make those blanket forts all the time? And all you did was argue about whose idea you were going to use,” Ms. Kim went on, thankfully not noticing Kai’s moment of introspection.

“Yes! The only thing we ever agreed on was that no one else was allowed inside. I came up with some of the greatest blanket fort designs the world has ever seen, but you never let me build them,” Sehun said, feigning annoyance and punching Kai lightly on the shoulder.

“That’s because your ideas were stupid and impractical,” Kai said.

“They were not!”

“Sehun, you wanted to build a three-story mansion,” Kai deadpanned.

“So?”

“So it wasn’t even possible!”

“It wouldn’t have hurt to try,” Sehun sniffed.

“They argue like this about literally everything, don’t they?” Taemin said, having already witnessed similar scenarios several times that day.

Sehun looked up at Taemin when he heard him talking, a look of irritation crossing his face before he turned to Kai and smiled and said, “We should totally make a blanket fort.”

“That’s such a cute idea!” Ms. Kim agreed, patting Sehun on the head while he grinned. “I’m sure with three of you it’ll be even more fun!” At that he glanced back at Taemin, his smile faltering.

“Hmm, maybe tomorrow,” he said. Didn’t she hear him say only he and Kai were allowed in the blanket fort?

“But Taemin is going home tomorrow, though,” Kai said, frowning. Hadn’t Sehun _just_ told him he was going to try to be nice to Taemin?

“But we still have a lot of decorating to do tonight, remember?” Sehun said, turning his attention back to Ms. Kim, charming smile back in place. “It wouldn’t be fair if he didn’t get to help at least put up the tree.”

“Oh, Sehun, so considerate!” Ms. Kim cheered happily, ruffling his hair before standing up. “Alright, you boys take your time here and come get me when you’re ready,” she said, stopping to toss her plate in the trash can on her way out of the room.

The boys finished more quickly than anticipated, and when Kai went to find his mother she was still in the shower. They brought the rest of the boxes downstairs that had been left in the hall that morning, then sat in the living room to wait.

“Hey, Sehun, why don’t you make some cocoa for us?” Kai suggested after sitting for a few minutes in an awkward silence. Sehun looked up from the thread he was picking at on the opposite end of the couch from Taemin, about to say no, when Kai went on. “Sehun makes the best cocoa,” he said, directing his statement to Taemin. “He makes it with cayenne pepper, which I thought was really weird at first, but it’s literally the only way I drink it now.”

“That actually sounds really good,” Taemin said. Kai’s smiled widened as he looked back hopefully at the other.

High on Kai’s praise, Sehun immediately changed his mind and made his way into the kitchen once again, not even thinking about the fact that he had just left the two of them alone in the living room together. He hummed happily to himself as he gathered all the ingredients he would need and started measuring out the right amounts. Once he had everything in the pot heating up, he started looking for mugs in the cupboard next to the stove. As he was setting them down on a tray, he happened to glance into the living room… where he saw Taemin with his arm around Kai.

Oh.

Oh, that would not do.

Blood boiling, Sehun slammed the rest of the mugs down. He turned the stove off and stood there fuming for a few seconds before an idea came to him. Making sure neither of them were looking his way, Sehun grabbed the cayenne pepper and tipped it up into Taemin’s mug. Once he felt there was a sufficient amount he grabbed the cocoa from the stove and poured it into each mug, making sure to stir the pepper in well and topping it off with mini marshmallows. Satisfied with the results, he lifted the tray up and walked back to the living room.

\---

“So, I don’t mean to pry, but I have to ask; are you and Sehun dating?” Taemin asked once said boy was out of earshot.

“What? No,” Kai said, maybe a little too fast, thrown off by the abrupt topic change. Had Taemin noticed his little episode at dinner?

“Really? ‘Cause he could have fooled me,” Taemin said skeptically. “Like, I get if you aren’t comfortable being all couple-y around people, but you can tell me if you are, I’m not gonna judge you or anything. I wasn’t going to say anything because I assumed you didn’t want to bring it up for some reason, but I’m getting kind of tired of being one the receiving end of the jealous girlfriend’s attitude.”

“Jealous girlfriend?” Kai repeated incredulously. “What are you talking about?”

“I mean, the first time I met the guy he practically shoved his tongue down your throat. And ever since then he’s pretty much acted like he would rather wax his balls every month for the rest of his life than see you interact with me in any way. So, like, the only conclusion I can come up with is that you two are together and he’s pissed because he thinks I’m encroaching on his territory or something stupid like that. That or he has a super mega crush he’s never mentioned before, because I’ve never seen anyone so green-eyed,” Taemin explained.

“That… that doesn’t make sense at all,” Kai said slowly, thinking over Taemin’s reasoning. There was no way Sehun had any real feelings for him, he had already made that crystal clear.

“It actually makes perfect sense, though? It’s pretty common for people to not tell their friends if they have a crush on them. It can make things awkward, you know?” Taemin said.

“No, not that he wouldn’t tell me. I mean, it doesn’t make sense that he would have a crush on me to begin with,” Kai said. Taemin looked at him intently, silently urging him to explain. “Sehun and I… we kinda… had a _thing_ for a while,” Kai started, blushing. “It wasn’t really anything official, we never made any promises to each other or anything. But he’s the one who ended it. Right before both of us left for school, actually. He said he wanted to have the freedom to meet people and have ‘experiences’ or whatever. So I’m sure he doesn’t have a crush on me.” He did his best to keep the bitterness out of his voice.

“Oh, Kai,” Taemin cooed, getting up from his spot on the couch and taking a seat on the arm of Kai’s chair, pulling him into a side hug with one arm and petting his hair with his free hand. “My sweet, naïve Kai. Sehun has all the symptoms of a jealous girlfriend: this morning he was happy as a clam when it was just the two of you talking, but when you reminded him that I was there he looked like he swallowed a lemon. When you were going up the ladder he did everything he could to make sure it didn’t move an inch, but when I was on it he ‘tripped’ on nothing and tried to knock it over. He tried to break my nose with a snowball because I touched you. With gloves on. Every time I tried to say something at dinner he either ignored me or interrupted me to talk to you. And I literally just saw him dump, like, half the container of cayenne pepper in the reindeer mug,” Taemin finished and pointed toward Sehun through the doorway to the kitchen.

Kai’s head snapped up in the direction Taemin was pointing, where he could just see Sehun putting the pepper away. “What a little shit,” he said to himself quietly as he watched Sehun continue on making the cocoa for a few stunned seconds. “Do you really think that’s why he’s been such a dick this whole time? Because he thinks I, like, chose you over him or something?” he asked as he turned back to face Taemin, disbelief written on his face. Sehun was acting like a brat because he thought Kai wanted to date Taemin, and that upset him. Which meant Sehun wanted to be the one Kai was dating. That was… that was a nice thought. He had a horrible way of showing it, but it still made Kai’s stomach flutter to think that maybe they had a chance after all.

“Yes, that’s exactly what I think. So could you maybe mention to him that I’m not trying to steal you away from him? I’d really like to not have any more injuries, thanks,” Taemin said, covering his tender nose with his hand delicately.

Kai nodded absently. “Yeah, I’ll talk to him,” he said as he stood up and started for the kitchen, still trying to process the thought that Sehun maybe actually wanted him. After just two steps he stopped in his tracks and spun back around, a smirk on his face that only someone with a Plan would wear. “Or we could fuck with him a little bit,” he said.

“I’m intrigued. After what he’s put me through today I would agree that that’s the least he deserves. Do go on,” Taemin said, motioning for Kai to retake his seat as he prepared to listen closely.

“Well, I was just thinking; since Sehun was the one to suggest the whole ‘let’s break up officially so we can hook up with other people and not feel guilty about it’ thing, why not do exactly that?” Kai said.

“You mean, pretend we’re dating?” Taemin asked, surprised but impressed. It wasn’t really like Kai to suggest something like that.

“Yes.”

“That might be a little weird, but it’s for the greater good, so I’m in,” Taemin said, sliding an arm around Kai’s waist again as Sehun came back into the room with a tray of cheery holiday mugs. Just as expected, the reindeer mug was placed in front of Taemin.


	4. chapter 4

“I hope you like it,” Sehun said to Taemin, a sickly sweet smile on his face as he took a sip of his cocoa.

Taemin gave him a small smile in return, raising his own mug and sniffing the contents. It didn’t smell like there was any chocolate in it whatsoever. Preparing for the worst, he brought the mug to his lips and let a small amount of the hot liquid flow over his tongue. Now, Taemin was no stranger to spicy foods, but this was a bit much even for him. He quickly covered a cough caused by the burning sensation by clearing his throat.

“Wow, that’s really good!” he exclaimed enthusiastically. Kai sent him an apologetic but grateful look while Sehun was focused on Taemin’s reaction. They both ignored the fact that his face was turning red. Sehun caught it, however, and smirked.

Before things could get more awkward, Ms. Kim appeared in the room and started assigning tasks to the boys as she opened each box. Grateful for the excuse to abandon his drink, Taemin stood up from the chair, grabbing Kai’s hand and pulling him along. Sehun caught the action and let the fake smile fall from his face. This was going to be a long night.

They spent the first hour or so of decorating in peace. Sehun, as per his agreement with Kai, tried his best to be civil. Even though Taemin hadn’t made any comments about the cocoa, Sehun knew it would be a huge strike against him if Kai found out, so instead of acting out against his best friend’s new boyfriend, he contented himself with subtly rearranging any and all decorations Taemin put out.

Sehun thought he was being sneaky, but Kai figured him out right away. Rather than straight up letting Sehun know that he had noticed, Kai decided to move his own game forward. He found a couple stacks of Christmas towels sitting on the coffee table and picked them up.

“Hey, Tae, come to the bathroom with me,” he said, stopping at the bottom of the stairs to both wait for Taemin and check for Sehun’s reaction. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Sehun’s head whip around in this direction.

“Does it really take two people to put towels in the bathroom?” Sehun asked, trying not to glare too obviously.

“There are still more on the table, and I don’t want to make two trips,” Kai reasoned. Sehun stared at him skeptically for a second before picking up a new ornament and turning back to the tree. Kai smiled in triumph as Taemin grabbed the last of the towels and followed him up the stairs.

“So was that retaliation for the cocoa, or because he keeps moving all my stuff?” Taemin asked while they were stacking the towels in the linen cabinet.

“You noticed that, too?” Taemin nodded and Kai laughed. “I guess both.”

“Hey, do you want to really get back at him?” Taemin said then and evil gleam in his eye. Without waiting for a response, he reached for Kai’ hair, running his fingers through it so it stuck up at all different angles. “Bite your lips,” he instructed.

“You don’t think this is too much, do you?” Kai wondered aloud, suddenly unsure.

“Kai, you just asked me to come to the bathroom with you. Alone. He already thinks we’re in here making out. We’re just helping to prove his suspicions right.”

To be fair, that was what Kai had been going for. He just didn’t want to do anything too drastic. Letting Sehun think they had gone off for a few private moments wasn’t quite the same as coming back with visible evidence. With the way Sehun had been acting, Kai was afraid Sehun would get too upset and just walk out. He didn’t want to do anything that would damage their friendship. Reassuring himself with the thought that this was exactly what Sehun had suggested they do in the first place, he took his bottom lip between his teeth and bit down. Taemin grinned.

In the living room, Sehun was forcing himself to remain calm. He knew he only had himself to blame for things turning out this way, but it was still hard for him to wrap his head around the fact that Kai was no longer available. As selfish as it sounded, Sehun just expected that Kai would stay single if he wasn’t with him. While Sehun had been with more people than he could accurately remember in high school, Kai had never gone out with anyone, and Sehun assumed that just wouldn’t change.

The sound of footsteps growing closer caught Sehun’s attention then, putting a stop to his train of thought. He looked back toward the stairs and proceeded to immediately drop the glittery ornament he had been about to hang on the tree, sending tiny bits of glass all around the floor as is shattered.

“Don’t move, I’ll get the broom!” Ms. Kim said, oblivious to the sudden tension in the room. “Make sure you don’t step on anything, we don’t need any more bloodshed today.”

The sight of Kai’s wrinkled shirt, mussed hair, and red, swollen lips nearly cause Sehun to stop breathing. The fact that Taemin was in much the same state had him seeing red. Just the thought of them doing less than innocent things with each other was enough to make him feel queasy, so seeing the aftermath of such acts was almost too much. Before he could open his mouth and make a comment he would surely regret, Ms. Kim came back with the broom and started sweeping up the broken glass.

“See, not too far,” Taemin said, leaning in close to made sure Kai was the only one to hear him. Kai nodded in agreement, a smile on his face even though he did feel kind of bad.

Before Kai hadn’t been making Sehun upset on purpose. He just assumed that Sehun was in a bad mood for some reason. But now that he knew the reason and could see how much Sehun was actually affected by his actions, he felt like a horrible person.

Once the broken ornament was take care of, Ms. Kim gave them the go ahead to resume their activities. Sehun continued hanging decorations on the tree, pointedly ignoring the other two as they came over to help. Kai wanted to apologize, but Sehun refused to even look in his direction.

“Where should we put this one?” Kai asked, holding up an ornament he and Sehun had picked out together for his mother when they were in second grade. They usually spent a good amount of time debating where to put it so it would stand out, so seeing Sehun shrug his shoulders and move on to something else was more that disappointing.

“I think you should put it here,” Taemin chimed in pointing to a spot on the side of the tree. Before Kai could hang it Sehun was back.

“It has to go on the front,” he grumbled, grabbing Kai’s hand and directing it to an empty spot in the front. “There,” he said, satisfied, once it was in place. He turned to smile at Kai, but stopped when he once again saw Kai’s state of disarray. He let go of his hand and went back to his own task.

Kai sighed in defeat and let his hand fall to his side as he looked around for the next ornament.

They worked through the last of the decorations fairly quietly. Ms. Kim kept up conversations with each of them, asking how their classes were going and what kinds of activities or clubs they had gotten involved in, and didn’t notice anything off between them. Until she came back from putting the last empty box away, that is.

Ms. Kim came back into the living room to see all three boys sitting in silence, not even looking at each other. “What’s with the quiet?” she asked, not used to Kai and Sehun being able to keep from talking for more than a few seconds.

“Nothing,” Kai said, while Sehun just shrugged again.

“Oookay, if you say so. Who wants s’mores?” she asked suddenly, trying to bring some cheer back into the gloomy atmosphere.

“I do!” Sehun announced. Tired of sitting awkwardly next to the other two, he jumped up and headed to the kitchen in search of supplies.

“Great!” Ms. Kim said, happy to see at least some enthusiasm. “I’m gonna go get another log, I’ll be back in a minute to start the fire.” She disappeared down the hall and into the basement, leaving Kai and Taemin alone in the living room again.

“Sooo, that plan didn’t last long,” Taemin commented quietly.

“Ugh, I know, I’m such a pushover. He gets a little pouty and I totally cave,” Kai whined, dragging his hands down his face. He let them continue down until they fell limply to his thighs, his head dropping to rest on the back of the couch. “I just… I don’t actually want to hurt him, you know? Yeah, at first I thought it would be kind of fun to get back at him, but I don’t like being the cause of his pouty faces.”

“Oh, Kai,” Taemin sighed, scooting closer and wrapping the younger boy in a comforting hug. Kai accepted gratefully, burying his face in Taemin’s neck. “So, you actually really like him, right? I mean, you guys are so obviously in love with each other I feel like I’m intruding on a private moment every time you guys look at each other,” Taemin said, earning a chuckle and a nod of the head from Kai.

“Do you think I should tell him the truth and apologize?” Kai asked, somewhat muffled by Taemin’s shirt.

Taemin took a minute to think before he said, “As much as I don’t think he deserves it, at least until he apologizes to you first, if that will make things better between you, then yes. I’m not a fan of him and I kind of want him to suffer, but I know that would also make you suffer and you’re my friend and I don’t want _you_ to be unhappy.” He finished his little speech with a tight squeeze around Kai’s shoulders.

They stayed that way until Taemin jerked in surprise as something collided with the back of his head. Kai jumped back and they both looked up to see Sehun glowering at them from the kitchen doorway.

“Oops, it slipped,” he said, every word dripping with sarcasm. He came into the room, bending down to pick up the bag of marshmallows he had thrown on his way to the fireplace.

Annoyed, Kai considered not apologizing for about half a second. He could just tell Sehun to go home if he wanted to keep acting like a brat. But then they would just be upset and away from each other and nothing would get solved, and he really didn’t want to be at odds with his best friend any longer. After collecting his thoughts for a moment, he stood up and walked over to the blond, ready to ask Sehun if they could go to his room and talk… only to be interrupted by his mom returning and stepping between them to get the fire started.

Things continued in the same fashion for the rest of the night. Every time Kai found a moment he thought was ideal, something would come up and Sehun would turn his attention elsewhere. Kai even tried to corner when they were passing each other while in the hall outside the bathroom, Kai having just finished showering and Sehun getting ready for his own, but Sehun just closed the door between them before Kai could say more than his name.

It was hard for Sehun to ignore his best friend the way he was, but it was the only way he was going to be able to get through the night. If Kai and Taemin were going to be together (and they had made it abundantly clear they were at this point) Sehun was going to have to distance himself from Kai somewhat. Now that he knew he was in love with the dancer, he couldn’t be close to him if they were going to remain friendly toward one another. And Sehun wanted to stay friends with him; Kai meant too much to him for Sehun to just cut him out of his life. But he knew that if he got too close to him now he would do something to jeopardize Kai and Taemin’s relationship, and in turn he would lose Kai. So the best course of action for the time being was to stay as far from Kai as possibly while they were in the same house until he could go home the next day. Sehun was determined that he was willing to sacrifice his own happiness for Kai’s.

Sehun managed to take long enough in the shower that Kai and Taemin had already decided to go to bed. He found hem in the living room with the same blankets they had used the night before spread out on the floor again, seemingly already asleep. He didn’t let the fact that they were facing away from each other with at least a foot of space between them get his hopes up at all.

Carefully making his way across the floor so as not to disturb them, Sehun laid down I his spot on the makeshift bed on Kai’s other side. He pulled his blanket up to his chin and rolled to face the wall, hoping sleep would come soon.

It was maybe twenty minutes later, when Sehun was just about to drift off, that he felt something brush against the back of his neck. His mind immediately supplied him with the image of a giant, hairy spider crawling toward his hairline and he froze. Only when he let logic catch up with him and remind him that even if there were giant, hairy spiders around, it was the middle of winter and they wouldn’t be alive to bother him anyway did he let himself relax. With the threat of spiders no longer present he realized that what he felt gently combing through the hair at the back of his head was distinctly finger-shaped. He indulged in the feeling for a few minutes, letting Kai believe he was asleep while he enjoyed touch of the other after missing it for so long.

Eventually, though, he steeled himself to pull away. Kai’s caresses were no longer for him, and pretending they were even for a while was only going to make letting go harder. With a deep breath he pulled himself away and settled his head on the farthest side of his pillow from Kai. He heard Kai’s hand fall to the floor with a soft thump, followed by a dejected sigh. Sehun closed his eyes again, ignoring the sound of Kai rolling away from him, and willed himself into unconsciousness.

\---

The next morning Sehun was confused as to why he had woken up so early. The sun was barely peeking over the horizon, and he hadn’t set an alarm, so why was he awake?

He got the answer to his question seconds later when he heard hushed giggles coming from behind him and felt a tug on his blanket. Rolling over, he was met with a scene that looked far more intimate than the thought he should be seeing.

Kai and Taemin were huddled close together, hands concealed under the covers, little bursts of laughter escaping from them every so often. Sehun could do nothing but lay there, staring at the two of them. Didn’t they have any sense of decency? He was right next to them and they were… Well, he wasn’t sure what they were doing, but they were doing _something_ , that much was obvious.

Sehun was brought out of whatever weird little bubble he had found himself in when Taemin grabbed Kai around the waist, pulling the younger boy on top of himself before continuing to roll hem both over until Kai was on his other side. Kai when along with the movement willingly, yelping slightly at the unexpected move. When he landed on the floor again he glanced up past Taemin and the smile slid off his face.

Sehun was pretending he hadn’t noticed the way he eyes had grown wet, but the look on Kai’s face told him the other had seen it. Before Kai’s reaction could cause Taemin to look back at him as well, Sehun threw the blanket away and shot up, racing up the stairs.

Kai watched, speechless, as Sehun disappeared.

“What’s wrong with him?” Taemin asked, having just noticed he was awake.

“Tae, I think he was crying,” Kai said softly, still looking at the staircase even though he had clearly hear a door slam, telling him that Sehun wasn’t coming back any time soon.

“What, seriously? And I didn’t get to see it?” Taemin whined, only exaggerating his disappointment a bit.

“Tae…”

Sensing Kai’s genuine distress over the situation, Taemin backed off. “Hey, I’m sorry, alright? But if he hadn’t been such a baby and ignored you all night every time you tried to talk to him, he wouldn’t be in this mess, so he really had no one but himself to blame.” Kai rolled his eyes, then but his lip as he looked back at the stairs.

“What’s up?” Taemin asked even though he had an idea of what Kai’s dilemma was.

“It’s just, I really need to talk to him, but I don’t know how long it’s going to take, and I don’t want to just leave you alone, but if I don’t do it soon he might leave and then I’d have to go to his house and what if he tells me to go away-“

“Kai!” Taemin yelled, putting a stop to the other boy’s panicked rambling. When Kai gave him his attention he continued. “It’s ok, go talk to him. Besides, my parents are going to be here any minute,” he said, holding up his phone with a text from his mom on the screen. At that moment they heard the crunch of tires on snow and three short beeps of a car horn. “See?”

“I’ll help you get your stuff,” Kai offered, standing and holding out a hand which Taemin took and used to pull himself up.

“It’s ok, I can manage. You go make up with your boyfriend. Loudly, if you like. I saw your mom leave before you woke up,” Taemin said with a wink, starting for the stairs to get his luggage from Kai’s room.

“Oh my god!” Kai groaned, following the other.

“I’ll see you back at school, then. Hopefully you’ll have lots of mushy love stories for me to ignore,” Taemin said, giving Kai a hug and wishing him luck before taking off down the stairs.

Once he was alone, Kai took a few deep breaths and braced himself, raising his fist up to knock on the locked guest room door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading! if you liked it, i'd appreciate if you could leave kudos/a comment and give me some motivation to finish this thing. (there are two more parts in this series that are already complete, but i can't post them until this one is finished!)


	5. Chapter 5

“Sehun, can I come in?” Kai asked tentatively.  He started to think maybe he hadn’t spoken loud enough when he got no response for several long minutes, but then he heard a quiet “ _Go away!_ ” through the door,  muffled as if Sehun had his face buried in a pillow.  He tried again, knocking a little harder.

_“Leave me alone!”_

“Come on, I need to talk to you,” Kai pleaded.

_“Go talk to your boyfriend!”_

Kai sighed in frustration.  “Sehun, you’re acting like baby,” he said, getting impatient.  He felt bad that Sehun was upset, but he didn’t want to wait around all day to resolve everything.  A moment later he heard the rustling of the comforter on the bed, then footsteps stomping closer, and then the door opened just enough for a small section of Sehun’s face to be visible.

“What do you want?” Sehun demanded irritably through the crack in the door, doing his best to pretend he wasn’t sniffling.

“I think we need to talk,” Kai said again, tone softening at the sight of tear tracks running over the blonde’s cheeks.

“No, I think we’re good,” Sehun said before Kai could go any further.  “Would have been nice to talk, you know, _before_ you brought your new boyfriend around and shoved him in my face so I could have been prepared, but now I know, so there’s really nothing to talk about now.”

“Sehun-“

“I mean, I knew we agreed to see other people, but damn, I thought you would have at least told me you were dating someone.  We were supposed to be best friends and all.  But whatever.”

“Sehun, we’re still best friends,” Kai said with a frown, ignoring the interruption and his growing annoyance.  “Why would you think we weren’t?”

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe because you’re keeping secrets from me?” Sehun suggested sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

“I haven’t kept any secrets from you!” Kai snapped then, tired of Sehun’s attitude.

“Really?  ‘Cause I don’t remember hearing about any new love interests in your life, but you sure seem to have one.”

“Oh my god, Sehun, Taemin isn’t my boyfriend!” Kai yelled, patience gone.  “Now let me in and we can talk about this.”  He pushed the door open wider and brushed passed Sehun into the room.  Too surprised at what he had just heard to stop him, Sehun just let Kai walk by him.

“What do you mean he’s not your boyfriend?” Sehun asked quietly once the door was shut and Kai was sitting on the bed, back resting against the headboard.

“I mean exactly that – he’s not my boyfriend.  What the hell even made you think he was in the first place?” Kai asked, curious.  He didn’t think he had acted any different with Taemin that he did with any of his other friends, and Sehun had never thought he was dating any of them.

Sehun was quiet again at that, standing unmoving in the same spot by the door as he went over the evidence he had gathered in the last few days again in his head.  None of it sounded as convincing with Kai looking at him the way he was, but he hesitantly started with, “Well, I mean, you guys are really close.”

“You and I are really close,” Kai countered.  “Even before we had sex we were really close.”

Choosing to ignore that bit of logic, Sehun continued with, “You paid more attention to him than you did to me.”

“Seriously?  That is the most childish thing I have ever heard.  I was literally trying to get you guys to talk and be friends.  I wanted my two best friends to be friends with each other so we could all have a good time.  But you were too busy plotting ways to sabotage everything he did to realize that we wanted to include you,” Kai explained.  Sehun crossed his arms and pouted, unable to look Kai in the eye because he knew he was right.  But instead of admitting to being wrong, he just continued on.

“When I kissed you, you basically pushed me away because he was there.”

“Well excuse me for being surprised as hell that the guy who told me he wanted to stop sleeping with me so he could find someone better was shoving his tongue down my throat again!” Kai yelled.  Sehun was taken aback at the truly angry look on his face.  “In fact, why would it matter if Taemin _was_ my boyfriend?  You and I weren’t together anymore, so It really shouldn’t matter to you if I’m dating someone or not.”  Kai could see that Sehun was near tears again, but took his state of frozen silence as an opportunity to continue finally voicing his frustrations about the situation.  “That’s right, Sehun, _you_ broke up with _me_ , so you don’t get to act like I’m the bad guy for-“

“I love you!” Sehun suddenly blurted out, stopping Kai’s indignant rant in its tracks.  When he realized what he had said he froze, eyes wide in shock.

“…What?” Kai asked several moments later, needing to hear it again to make sure his ears weren’t deceiving him.

“I love you,” Sehun repeated when he found his voice again.  He sat down on the bed facing Kai and took his hands in his own.  “I’m sorry.  I know everything you’ve said is right and I’ve been awful the last few days, but it’s because I realized how I felt about you and I wanted to tell you but then you brought someone else home with you and I thought I lost my chance and I should have just asked you about it but I didn’t and that was stupid bit it’s just… knowing that the person you love has moved on… it _hurts_ …”

“Yeah, tell me about it,” Kai said with a humorless chuckle, his eyes fixed on where Sehun was nervously playing with his fingers.  When he stopped, Kai finally looked up at him.

“You mean, you… me…”  Sehun tried to vocalize his thoughts when he comprehended what the other meant, but he was having difficulties.

“Yes, Sehun, I loved you,” Kai confirmed.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Sehun demanded then, a frown of annoyance marring his face as he dropped Kai’s hands and crossed his arms.

“Jesus, Sehun, we were in high school!  I figured if I said anything like that you would freak out and leave.  Which pretty much happened anyway, so I guess I should have taken the chance.”

“Yeah, you should have,” Sehun huffed.

“Would it have made a difference if I had?” Kai inquired with a raised eyebrow. When Sehun looked away and didn’t answer he added, “That’s what I thought.”

After another stretch of silence passed, and a lot of the tension seemed to melt out of the room, Sehun spoke.  “So, you said you loved me.  Does that mean…”

Kai sighed.  “No, that doesn’t mean I don’t love you anymore,” he answered the unfinished question.  “I tried for a long time, but it never really worked.”  Sehun let a small smile grace his face at hearing that.

“So does that mean we can...?”  Sehun trailed off again.

“Does that mean we can… what?” Kai teased, not letting Sehun off easy by finishing his thought for him a second time.

“Does that mean we can, maybe, try again?” Sehun asked, his face turning pink.

“I don’t know.  Maybe.”

“Maybe?”

“Yeah, maybe.”

“Sooo how do I make that a yes?” Sehun asked, shifting to sit on his knees.

“Well, you can start by telling me how many how many people you were with while we were apart,” Kai requested.

“I went out with three people, all in the first month of school,” Sehun offered readily.

“Did you sleep with any of them?”

Sehun winced at that question, even though he had expected, but still answered truthfully, “Just the last one.”

“Oh?  And what made you stop with that one?” Kai asked, noticing the way Sehun’s face darkened further as he answered.

“Well, that was pretty much when I realized how I felt about you.  I was kind of thinking about you the whole time,” he said, hoping that was enough, but Kai just sat there with an expectant look on his face, silently urging him to go on.  “And I… might have… saidyournamewhilewewerefucking,” he rushed out, not able to look up from the suddenly very enthralling pattern on the bedspread.

Kai took a second to mentally untangle Sehun’s words, then burst into laughter.  “Oh my god, are you actually serious right now?” he wheezed when he could take a breath.

“Ugh, shut up.  Do you know how embarrassing that was?” Sehun whined, hiding his face in his hands.

“Shh, don’t worry,” Kai said, pulling Sehun’s hands away from his face, then tugging even further until Sehun was in his lap.  “It’s not like I’m gonna tell anyone.”

Sehun leaned forward and buried his face in Kai’s neck as Kai started rubbing relaxing circles into his back.  He stayed there for a while, just enjoying being close to the other after being apart for so long.  Eventually Kai’s hands moved lower and lower until they were rubbing past Sehun’s bottom and teasing up and down his thighs.

“So, I’m taking this to mean we’re good?” Sehun mumbled into Kai’s neck as he put his hands on top of Kai’s, adding pressure and massaging his thighs harder.

“Almost.  Since you made me feel so shitty, now you have to make it up to me by making me feel really good,” Kai said, sliding his hands back up and groping Sehun’s ass.  Sehun’s breath hitched and he leaned back to look at the dark-haired boy’s face.

“Oh yeah?  And how do you propose I do that?” he asked, a playful smirk sliding onto his face.

“You could start by kissing me,” Kai suggested staring intently as Sehun stuck his tongue out and ran it over his bottom lip.  Without hesitating, Sehun leaned in the few inches separating them and pressed their lips together.

Knowing he wouldn’t be able to hold back, Sehun didn’t even bother with teasing before he was forcing his way into Kai’s mouth.  Kai opened up for him right away, sucking Sehun’s tongue into his mouth as far as it would go.  Sehun groaned as he licked along the backs of Kai’s teeth.

When both of them were reduced to panting into each other’s mouths more than kissing, Sehun pulled back and met Kai’s half-lidded eyes.  “What next?” he whispered, dragging his nails down Kai’s chest.

Kai moaned at the feeling of Sehun’s blunt fingernails barely scratching at him through the thin t-shirt he has slept in.  His eyes slid the rest of the way closed and he let his head thunk back against the headboard behind him as he gripped at Sehun’s cheeks harder.

“Come on, baby, tell me what you want,” Sehun said, encouraging Kai to keep talking to him.  Just as Kai opened his mouth to answer, Sehun shifted his hips forward, grinding their arousals together.  Kai let out a strangled sound and thrust up against him.  Sehun smirked and whined, “Kaaiii, I’m waiting,” trying to keep up his teasing although he was feeling a bit breathless with desperation himself.

“Fuck, Sehun, it’s been too long for this, just get on me,” Kai groaned, still unable to open his eyes.  When Kai pulled Sehun’s ass cheeks apart to grind up against his hole through their clothes, Sehun snapped.

“Fuck, I wanna ride you so hard,” he growled, practically clawing at the drawstring of Kai’s sleep pants in his haste to get them off.  He managed to pull them down Kai’s thighs just far enough for his impressively swollen cock to pop out.

“Shit, it has been too long,” Sehun nearly sobbed as he stared at Kai’s dick like it held the answer to all of his problems in life.  Resisting the urge to lay down between the older boy’s legs and suck him into his throat (because Sehun was sure he couldn’t keep himself from rutting against the bed until he came if he did that, and there was no way he was going to let his first orgasm after getting back together happen any way other than with Kai inside him), he stood up and pulled his own pants down, ignoring that one leg caught around his ankle as he straddled Kai’s lap again a mere two seconds after leaving it.  Kai’s hands were back on his ass just as quickly, one again pulling the fleshy globes apart and making room for his leaking cock to slide over Sehun’s hole unimpeded.  Sehun yelped and grabbed Kai’s shoulders to keep his balance while he grinded down on him.

“Oh god, wait, _wait_!” he whimpered, though he made no real attempt to stop Kai from doing whatever he wanted.  He removed one hand from Kai’s shoulder with some difficulty and reached shakily to the nightstand next to the bed.  He nearly cried in happiness when he opened the drawer and found the bottle of lude they had left there several months earlier.  Kai made to grab the bottle from him when he saw it, but Sehun swatted his hand away.

“What-“

“If you do it I’m gonna come,” Sehun explained as he covered his own fingers in the slick liquid and reached behind himself.  Kai nodded in understanding and settled for watching while Sehun quickly and efficiently prepared himself.  In no time at all, Sehun was picking up the bottle again and pouring a generous amount onto Kai’s erection, barely touching him long enough to spread it around.

“Ready?” Sehun asked as he sat up on his knees to position the head of Kai’s cock at his stretched entrance.

At half a nod from Kai, Sehun was sinking down on him fast, not stopping until they were pressed together as close as possible.  He dug his fingers into Kai’s thighs just above his knees as he rocked back and forth, breath hitching and little whimpers escaping him every time he moved.

“God, you love this, don’t you?” Kai mumbled, always amazed at how much Sehun seemed to enjoy being stuffed full of him.

“Fuck, yes, missed your cock so much,” Sehun panted, already having trouble focusing on the words leaving his mouth.  Using his grip on Kai’s legs as leverage, he lifted himself up a few inches and then slammed back down, mouth hanging open in a silent scream at the way Kai felt inside him.  He rode him hard and fast after that, too desperate to even think of starting slow.  Kai could barely keep up with him.

It was only minutes later that Kai felt Sehun start to twitch and tremble around him.  He grunted with the effort of thrusting up as hard as he could whenever Sehun rocked back down, guiding his hips to help him bounce even faster.

“Close, close, hah-ah, _ahh!  Kai!_ ” Sehun squealed, bucking down hard onto Kai’s lap, rolling his hips in minute movements to keep Kai’s cock constantly pressing against his prostate as he painted irregular white stripes across his chest and stomach.  Kai followed seconds later, scratching bright red lines into Sehun’s skin, trying to pull him impossibly closer as he emptied himself inside him.

“Wow,” Sehun said softly, wrapping his arms around Kai’s neck and nuzzling his face into the side of his throat.

“Yeah,” Kai agreed.

“You know,” Sehun started, still trying to catch his breath, “if I didn’t know I wouldn’t be able to stick to my own plan, I would suggest waiting another few months before we have sex again if it’s gonna be like that.” 

Kai laughed at him.  “Does that mean you’re going to come visit me?” he asked.  “Since, you know, you’re my boyfriend now and you’re not allowed to sleep with anyone else.”

Sehun couldn’t help but smile at hearing Kai call him his boyfriend.  “Mhmm,” he hummed in response.

“Good,” Kai said contentedly, brushing his fingers soothingly through Sehun’s sweat-damp hair.  Sehun relaxed even further against Kai’s chest as he let himself be petted.

“Kai?” Sehun said sleepily a few minutes later.

“Hmm?”

“I love you.”

“I love you, too, Sehun.”


End file.
